A Boston College sports blog capturing the highs and lows of being a BC fan living 1,000 miles from Chestnut Hill.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

"Walta" and other links

If you follow one subject long enough you start to realize that a story can pop due to little more than a passing comment. Take the "Walter McCarty to coach BC" stuff that has creeped up in the last 24 hours. McCarty makes a comment and then all the sports and news outlets in New England comment on his comments. Meanwhile he's probably not even getting a second glance from BC. I don't know McCarty. He may have earned his stripes as a recruiter for Louisville, but I don't think Bates is going to spend much time on an NBA assistant who has never been a head coach. But take the story and run with it Boston media!

18 comments:

The Herald article linked within the NESN article that you've linked to states that McCarty is definitively on Bates's list of candidates ("The list of candidates for the head basketball coach’s position at Boston College includes Walter McCarty, the Herald has learned"), so assuming the Herald is correct in its reporting, I wouldn't call this the Boston media 'taking a comment and running' -- more 'this is the only guy we can confirm is being considered, and hey, I wonder what he thinks about that?"

I really wouldn't rule anything out with Bates (I mean that in a good way), and I kind of think I could be talked into McCarty were Bates to go with a hungry assistant as opposed to a proven HC. Coaching under Pitino and Stevens is pretty formidable, and he is semi-beloved in the Boston area thanks to Tommy Heinsohn's mini heart attacks whenever McCarty hit a corner three or dove for a loose ball.

We saw a definite story that SD was back next year. We see all kinds of stuff about Amaker. We see more stuff about how close mouthed that BB is. The SD part was wrong. The Amaker part is speculation by Shaughnessy. So, why would we believe that the Herald has a special pipeline to BB and knows the "list"? When the new coach is announced by BB, then I'll believe that we know who he is. Not before.

The Barkley Center in Brooklyn is the real deal. I was in New York over the last week for the St. Patrick's Day Parade and just missed the A-10 Tournament. I took the subway over to Barkley. There are some 10 subways which end up at the Atlantic Exit. The Barkley is a real Mecca from the outside with a plaza. MSG is a zoo in the middle of a traffic jam. The surrounding area in Brooklyn appears to be very pleasant and safe with shops and wide open spaces. You can hotel anywhere in New York and then hit the subway for the games. It was really a shock at just how nice that the venue is for the Barkley Center. I was told that inside the Center is even better. The ACC made a wise move.

A perfect basketball world would have BC land an energetic, recruiting wiz in Jim Calhoun for 4 or 5 years while he trains his top assistant to move into the top job after he retires for a long successful run.

Blauds says that Folger and associates are involved in the BC basketball coaching search. Realizing who we are dealing with, some online research at the Atlanta Journal Constitution site shows that, as of 2011, these were the coaches who had been hired upon Folger's advice. I've updated their won-loss and employed status:

South Carolina………….Darrin Horn, 60-63 fired by So. Carolina last week.

Tennessee State……….John Cooper, formerly an assistant at Auburn………………..Now at Miami of Ohio...starting to connect the dots?

Here's Folger on Cooper: A native of Kansas City, Mo., Cooper played collegiately at Wichita State under Fogler. He led the Shockers in scoring and rebounding during his junior and senior seasons. Cooper was a two-time team captain and a Rhodes Scholar candidate in his senior year.

Fogler praised Miami's selection.

"John Cooper is the perfect fit for Miami University," said Fogler. "A high achiever both on the court and in the classroom, Coop will compete for championships with student-athletes that graduate and who are prepared for life after basketball. John was very instrumental in my own personal successes as a player for me at Wichita State University and as my assistant coach at the University of South Carolina. What he accomplished as head coach at Tennessee State the past three years is remarkable. He's a great young coach and even a better person."

UNC-Wilmington………..Buzz Peterson……………………………………42-80...fired at end of this season..

You can draw your own conclusions about the types of searches and choices made with Folger's involvement. To me...this says BC fans are going to be surprised, because, if Folger is involved, a different "tree" of coaches is being considered.

McCarty spent three years as an assistant at Louisville, and has now done a year with the Celtics. a coach from a Brad Stevens-Rick Pitino coaching tree who knows how to recruit and wants to be in Boston? i'm sorry, but i'll take that over the vast majority of the candidates currently rumored.

its one thing to get a career assistant (IE a guy who didnt play in college or played sparingly, then started as like a video editor and worked his way up); its another to get a guy who played for 10 years in the NBA after an illustrious college career who has now been an assistant at both levels for a few seasons. guys like Mark Jackson and Doc Rivers had zero coaching experience whatsoever and off the bat were passable NBA coaches.

McCarty is a swing for the fences, but in my opinion there is a lot more to feel good about than to worry about (the only real con is that he hasn't been a head coach, which is offset by the fact that he's been an assistant at both levels). i hope Bates is considering him and brings him in for an interview.

Flgers is not going to make the hire. BB is. If those other schools made bad hires that were on a list supplied to them by Folgers, blame the guy that did the hiring. Now maybe, if BB hired Folger (big if), then you blame him for that. He has to evaluate all candidates himself.

FWIW, I've been to multiple events at both the Barclays Center & MSG... Barclays center is a fantastic facility. MSG has the history, but really, I'd rather watch a game at Barclays. It should also generate pretty solid crowds as the surrounding area has a lot of great bars/restaurants for pre/post game and is easily accessible from Manhattan, Queens, and obviously Brooklyn

It's hard to compare a 40 yr old building with a brand new one. Most notably one that was built primarily with basketball in mind.All that said, i've been to both many times for hockey, basketball and concerts, and must say that Barclays has gotten a lot right.

I too have been to games @ Baclay's and see this as a slam dunk. The average seat has better sight lines than the Garden. You can take the LIRR right there. We have a ton of alums on L.I. For me being a NYC alum the toughest part of the move to the ACC was losing the Big east tourney and to a lesser degree the game w/ St. John's. I always went to both, including the infamous point shaving game. I can still picture Ernie Cobb hoisting up brick after brick, but I digress. This will also be fun for the kids to come down from BC to see the games, and the thousands of alums between N.Y and Beantown. All the press in NYC was lamenting how the big east tournament wasn't the same w/ the new league make up. Here is a chance to fill that void.I can see the ACC tourney rotated between 3 places in the future. Greensboro, Brooklyn, and some place in Fla.Now all we need is to have a team worth watching by 2017!